Puppy Mill History
 

I was curious how did puppy mills ever get started. So I have been online reading & thought some of you might like to also know the history of puppy mills. I found several links, I have copied below the one I thought was the most detailed.

It is really eye-opening :eek:

these are the words of Libby Williams of NJ Consumers Against Pet Shop Abuse:


Puppy mills began sprouting and dotting the landscape of the Midwest shortly after World War II, thanks in part to the United State Department of Agriculture (USDA). This was during the time of the Great Depression and the US Government was attempting to help poor farmers supplement their income.

Unfortunately, many dog farmers had no experience in canine breeding and little money to invest in this newfound career. Therefore, dogs were housed in long unused, dilapidated chicken coops or rabbit hutches. Since these dog farmers lacked knowledge of canine health and had very little extra money to spend on them, dogs were provided little socialization and scant or non-existent veterinary care. These farmers soon realized the boon in selling dogs to pet shops.

Major department store chains, like Sears & Roebuck and Montgomery Ward, sold puppies and birds in the 1950’s. It wasn’t long after that “mom & pop” pet shops began selling puppies, followed by the emergence of larger stores that went on to become mega-franchises, like Docktor Pets (now defunct) and Petland.

Enter the brokers and their agents, the middleman, who set out to save the farmers, stuck in the heartland, the hassle of getting their dogs to market – the pet stores on both coasts.

Since most of the puppies bred in the Midwest were headed to points west, brokers were looking for an easy means of supplying puppies to pet stores along the eastern seaboard. I’m sure a high-voltage light bulb went off in the heads of major brokers as they realized there was an untapped resource ripe for the picking in central PA – Amish farmers!

According to Bob Baker, former chief investigator for HSUS, brokers, along with reps from the AKC (who coveted thousands of new dog registrations!), descended on PA in the early to mid-seventies, recruiting farmers and holding seminars to teach them a thing or two about raising dogs. If they could raise hogs, they could easily raise dogs. After all, both are considered livestock and fall under the auspices of the powerful PA Department of Agriculture. And so began the journey that led PA farmers into the exploitative world of large-scale commercial dog dealing and elevating Pennsylvania, some 15-20 years later in 1992, to being declared the Puppy Mill Capital of the East.

Interesting post. I googled 'puppy mill history' and found the same material. I had never heard before of the AKC being complicit in the growth of the puppy mill industry :eek: . One of those things that make you go.......hmmm.

Interesting...and very sad :(

Good Post. I was thinking / hoping maybe YT could have a sticky on puppymills and petstores. I'd be more then happy to continue to research and add and keep it updates. I think it's important for new YT's to be able to have access here to stuff like that to prevent them from buying Yorkies through the wrong places and people.

Elaine

very very sad :(

Thank you for finding this and posting.
It's so very painful to read these things, yet I just can't seem to stop myself from doing so. I know in my heart that education is the key to finding an end solution to all this, but I wish it wasn't so painful.

Thank you for posting this information. Sad to read - but necessary.

Yes, AKC had a great deal to do with the puppy mills starting here in Lancaster, PA amoung the amish. I think that's why they were so quick to send a letter to Oprah to be included in the show and I noticed it wasn't mentioned on the show. I know just 10 years ago most of the puppies coming out of Lancaster puppy mills were still AKC registered. So much for those inspections being done. It still all comes down to the bottom line.

I love that idea!! Admin should really go for that!

:thumbup: Thanks for this thread. It is very interesting. There is a 'Sticky' at the top of the 'General Discussion' group about 'Oprah exposes puppy mills'. Maybe you should post the information there also.

well, I don't know if that will remain a sticky

But jrsygal & I both started threads to admin about it :rolleyes: -- I did it, & did not see hers until afterwards

Bump! I thought a lot of people would find this post really interesting and informative!! :thumbup:

History is very often sad.

History does tend to be sad but as the old saying goes know your history or you are doomed to repeat it...

yes, but this time we need to stop the history that is being made.

Wonder if fewer people are buying dogs because of the current economy. Maybe that will impact these people, along with all they eyes that have hopefully been opened on Oprah's show.

I read one amazing account on Oprah's board last night, one gal said their shelter was swamped with people within 3 days of Oprah's show & a dog that had even been with them for more than a year was adopted!! :animal-pa

What seemed to be a good idea back then is not the case today.(thank God) AKC didnt do inspections back then or if they did, it was minimal. Everything comes down to the "bottom line". Do you expect AKC to do their services for free? And why wouldnt they register those dogs? If they are registerable, then they have no recourse but to register the dogs. It would be very discriminitory not to. Where would the line be drawn? It would be like this: We wont register your dogs because you have 100, but we will register your dogs because you only have 99. Or, we wont register your dogs because you have purple hair, but we will register your dogs because you have yellow hair.Or lets say that dog showing and agility were not in the good graces of the majority of the public and considered inhumane. Does that mean that it is ok for AKC to refuse to register the dogs that are showing, even though they were registerable the previous year? This year only gun dogs will be elegible for registration.

So if you must give AKC a black eye, then you must give ALL the other alternative registries a black eye plus ALL the companies that make $$$ off the puppy mills. These would be the dog food companies, wholesale pet supply companies, pet stores, trucking companies, veterinarians, and a whole list of others.

AKC is not perfect and never will be. They are a business and businesses make money. If they dont, they go out of business. But hands down, they are better than any of the alternative registries.

:thumbup: :thumbup:


The AKC isn't a law enforcement agency, all they can do is take the breeders off the AKC registry if they are not abiding by the law, and contact local authorities. Many governmental agencies didn't even do inquiries if the breeder was AKC registered, and this left it up to the AKC to do all inspections. While many puppymills have been dropped from the AKC registry, alterative registries are popping up that will register anything even "designer dogs". Many people don't understand the difference in registries and don't care as long as their dog is "registered". Others don't understand that registering your dog isn't a status thing, but a way to help keep breeders honest. It's less than $20.00 to register your dog for life, I wish more people would support the AKC, by registering their dog, and get involved in making it a better organization.

Thanks for the info on the history of puppymills, I hope you get a Sticky going on this to educate people who are looking to buy a puppy.

admin said yes, they would make a sticky about puppy mills & I'm hoping this will become part of the stick or at least my original post

Everyone on this website and other organizations should write personal letters to the President and mail them on the same day.

Thanks for posting. It was very interesting. I had never reallythought much about mills started.